Happy Birthday, Yao
by cherylwoo
Summary: Arthur and Hong Kong give Yao birthday presents. But Arthur may or may not have screwed up his gift.


Arthur awoke to the sensation of something bouncing on him. Particularly, the area between his chest and his stomach.

Arthur opened an eye, and came face-to-face with his son grinning excitedly at him. It was at this point Arthur realised that Hong Kong was chanting "Papa, Papa, Papa, Papa," over and over again.

Arthur glanced towards the other side of the bed, worried that the bouncing would wake his bedmate up. However, it was empty – Yao had already woken up and was making breakfast downstairs. _As expected…_ Arthur sighed softly, and turned his attention to Hong Kong.

"Hong Kong, you aren't that light anymore, you know," Arthur grumbled.

But Hong Kong ignored Arthur. He continued his incessant bouncing and chanting, "Papa, Papa, Papa, Papa."

"What is it?"

"Papa," Hong Kong's voice lowered to a conspiratory whisper. "It's Daddy's birthday today. You need to give him a present." He then looked at Arthur with a determined expression. "He HAS to open a present from you."

Arthur wanted to laugh. The way Hong Kong sounded, it was as if the world would end if Yao didn't get to open a present from Arthur.

Arthur raised an eyebrow at his son. "Well, do YOU have a present for Daddy?"

Hong Kong puffed out his chest proudly. "Of course I do," he proclaimed. "We made pen-holders in school, and I made an extra-nice one for Daddy!"

"Can I see it?"

Hong Kong shook his head. "I've already wrapped it up and I don't want to destroy the wrapping… but can I show you the packaging?"

"I would love to see it."

With a happy squeal, Hong Kong leapt off Arthur and disappeared into his room. He returned shortly after with a box wrapped in red paper. Arthur could tell that Hong Kong had personally wrapped the gift by himself – it had creases where they shouldn't be, and the folding and taping were messy. But that made it all the more endearing.

"Say, Hong Kong?" Arthur rolled onto his side and rested his head on his hand.

Hong Kong looked up at his father.

"Would you like to wrap up my present for Daddy?"

"Yes!" Hong Kong immediately replied. "He needs to open a present from you."

"Great!" Arthur then reached into the drawer of the side table on his side of the bed and brought out a small black box.

Hong Kong peered curiously at the box. "What did you buy for Daddy?"

Arthur winked at his son. "You want to see?"

Hong Kong nodded excitedly. If Arthur hadn't known better, by the way Hong Kong was acting, he would have thought it was Hong Kong's birthday instead.

Arthur opened the box to reveal a silver Tissot watch. "Daddy's watch is getting really old," he explained. "And I know he doesn't care for expensive watches, but I thought I'd get him one that will last a while."

"It's really pretty," Hong Kong said.

Arthur snapped the lid of the box close and gave it to Hong Kong. "Can you wrap it up for me?"

"Mm!" Hong Kong grabbed the box. With his own present in the other hand, he ran back to his room to get the job done.

Arthur watched his son disappear from the master bedroom, and decided he should get out of bed too. He got up and made his way to the bathroom to brush his teeth.

When he was done, Arthur stepped out of his bedroom and stole a glance in the direction of his son's bedroom. The door was still firmly shut, meaning that Hong Kong was still busy with the task he had been given.

_Excellent._ Arthur smirked to himself. That meant he had time to go downstairs and give Yao his good morning kiss. (Which probably entailed more than a kiss, but Yao doesn't have to know of his intentions.)

Quietly, Arthur made his way downstairs and into the kitchen. Unsurprisingly, Yao was busy at the kitchen counter. He had his back turned towards the entrance of the kitchen, and did not realise that he was no longer alone in the kitchen.

Arthur took a step closer towards Yao. Yao's head remained bowed down; he was busy with mixing some ingredients into a bowl.

Emboldened, Arthur made his way towards Yao. When he was directly behind Yao, he had to hold his breath so as to not alert Yao of his presence.

Then, Arthur snaked his arms around Yao's waist. The inaudible gasp from the Chinese man as the ladle he was holding clattered onto the counter made Arthur grin. He had succeeded in surprising Yao.

Yao turned his head around to look at Arthur with an annoyed expression. "Haven't I told you not to scare me when I'm cooking, aru? I could have burnt you!"

Arthur beamed down at Yao. "Good morning and happy birthday!" he greeted.

Yao sighed, but he was smiling. He turned his body around to face Arthur and wiped his hands on his apron. "Thank you. And good morning to you too," he replied. He lifted his head to peck Arthur gently on the lips.

Just as Yao was about to pull away, he felt Arthur's hand press the back of his head, preventing him from parting from Arthur's mouth. Arthur's lips attacked Yao's with renewed fervour, causing the petite Asian man to let out a moan.

"Arthur…" Yao managed to gasp out in between kisses. "Not here… what about… Hong Kong…?"

"Don't worry," Arthur murmured. "He has a task to get done."

Yao didn't even bother to ask what task it was that Arthur had Hong Kong execute. He simply melted into Arthur arms and responded to Arthur taking control of the kissing. Arthur's hand wandered from behind Yao's head down south to grope Yao's butt.

It wasn't long before Arthur and Yao broke apart. Both of them were a little breathless, but they were smiling at each other.

"What are you making?" Arthur sniffed the air around him.

"Pancakes. You like pancakes, don't you?"

"Yes, I do. But… why don't you put making breakfast on hold for a while?" asked Arthur, taking Yao's hands in his and pulling Yao out of the kitchen. "I'm sure Hong Kong will be down in a while and will want you to open your presents."

Yao's eyes sparkled. "There are presents, aru?" He knew it was childish of him to be excited over presents, and he didn't really expect his family to give him anything. After all, it was their presence and love that really mattered. But the thought of his most cherished people giving him gifts sent a warm flutter through Yao's heart.

Arthur rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "Of course. We generally give presents to people on their birthday." He led Yao into the living room.

Yao covered his mouth with his hand to muffle his snicker.

"I didn't have the time to wrap my present for you, so Hong Kong volunteered to do it. He has this impression that you NEED to receive a present from me. Or something like that."

"That's sweet."

"Yeah, but I sometimes wonder where that boy's train of thought comes from."

Yao elbowed his lover playfully. "From being raised by you, obviously."

"Hey!"

There were sounds of footsteps running downstairs. Then, there was an excited chatter of "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy." Suddenly, Hong Kong was propelling into Yao. He was hugging two wrapped presents to his chest. He looked up at Yao and beamed. "Happy birthday, Daddy."

Yao ruffled his son's hair affectionately. "Thank you."

Hong Kong thrust the two presents at Yao. "These are from Papa and me," he told Yao.

Yao took the gifts as Arthur bent down to lift Hong Kong in his arms. "Let's go and sit down, and then Daddy can open his presents, okay?"

"Okay!"

Once the three of them were seated on the three-seater sofa in the living room with Yao in the middle, Hong Kong draped himself over Yao's lap. "Open mine first!" he chirped.

"Which one is yours, aru?"

Hong Kong tapped the bigger present. "This one! I made it myself!"

"Alright." Gently, Yao peeled off the tape attaching the wrapping together. He had a habit of preserving the packaging of things he received. When he was younger and thriftier, he used to re-use the wrappers to wrap his presents for other people. But now, Yao thought, since the giver of the present had painstakingly wrapped the gift for him, he should not destroy the wrapper.

The present was finally unwrapped and unboxed to reveal a red clay pen-holder with pink peonies painted on it. It was, by no means, perfect, since a child had made it, but Yao thought it was beautiful.

"Thank you, Hong Kong, aru," Yao said with a smile. "I will put it on my desk and place all my pens in it."

Hong Kong clapped his hands together gleefully. Then, he picked up the other present and shoved it into Yao's arms. "Open this one now!"

"This one…" Yao glanced at Arthur. "Is from Papa?"

"Yes!"

Yao opened Arthur's present. It came in a black box, which opened to reveal a silver Tissot watch.

Yao gasped. The watch was beautiful. And it looked really expensive.

Arthur was the first to speak. "Can I… can I put it on you?"

Yao was speechless. Nevertheless, he nodded and offered his left wrist to Arthur.

When the watch was safely fastened around Yao's wrist, the small family admired it for a moment.

"I thought it was pretty alone, but on Daddy's hand, it's even prettier!"

Arthur beamed. "I know, right?"

Yao looked at Arthur and Hong Kong. They were both so happy. He didn't really have the heart to say what he was going to say next. "Arthur?" he asked timidly.

"Hm?"

"In Chinese culture, it kinda is… um…"

Arthur didn't like Yao's tone of voice. He looked at Yao worriedly. "What is it?"

"Well, it's considered bad luck to give someone a clock as a present."

Arthur's eyes widened considerably. "What?! I didn't know that!" he exclaimed. "But this is not a clock – it's a watch!"

"Same thing, aru," Yao deadpanned.

"Why, though?" Hong Kong asked.

"In Chinese, 'giving' is '送' and 'clock' is '钟'. When you put the two words together, it sounds like '送终', which means 'tending to a wake and funeral'. And anything to do with death is considered unlucky," Yao explained.

"Nooo…" Arthur moaned and buried his face in his hand. "I thought a watch would be a good present since yours is so old and worn out! And it looks so nice on you…"

Yao looked at Arthur with an amused expression. His lover tended to be so melodramatic over the tiniest things. His face fell, however, when he stole a peek at Hong Kong. His son looked like the world was going to end. "But I know a way around this superstition," Yao said quickly to rectify the situation.

Arthur immediately stopped his moaning, and both father and son lifted their heads to stare at Yao eagerly.

"I can give you a small amount of money so that it looks like you actually sold me the watch," replied Yao.

Arthur looked thoughtful. He then waggled his eyebrows suggestively. "Oh, I can think of other ways you can pay…"

Yao smacked Arthur's upper hand. "Pervert, aru!"

Arthur swatted Yao's hand away. But he was laughing. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" He kissed Yao's cheek. "I'm not taking anything more than 5 cents for it."

Yao was about to retort, saying that it was such a measly amount and it wasn't worth such an expensive watch, but a glare from Arthur shut him up. Finally, he said, "Okay, deal!"


End file.
